1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to firearms and, more particularly, to a firearm adapter rail system for mounting accessories to the firearm.
2. Brief Description of Earlier Developments
The original M16 rifle was developed in the 1960""s. During the original development, the hand guard system employed on the rifle, was merely that, a hand guard, the forward hold for the weapon including its mounting configuration to the weapon. The original accessories for the M16 included scope mounting to the handle portion, carry sling and bayonet mounting to the front sight casting. The devices and attachments used today simply did not exist at the time of the rifle design. Therefore, no consideration was given to supplemental device mounting.
As technology has progressed since the time of first development of the M16 rifle, supplemental devices and accessories have been developed in order to enhance the use of the rifle. Presently, the M4 type rifles and carbines (the current descendents of the original M16 type rifle) may be integrated with numerous supplemental devices and accessories such as cameras, lasers, lights and a host of other electronic and mechanical gear. Also, secondary weapon system integration may be performed with the M4 such as grenade launchers, shot gun type devices for lethal and nonlethal deployment and other such means. The supplemental devices may be integrated with the M4 type rifle and carbine by military, police, and civilian users (in the case of civilian users possibly with the exception of the secondary weapon systems and using restricted law enforcement and military versions of the M4 type rifle). Furthermore, in the hands of the military, the M4 type firearm has morphed into an M4 type weapon system. This versatility has been demonstrated through the U.S. Army""s xe2x80x9cLand Warrior Systemxe2x80x9d mounting several pieces of electronics to the M4 including cameras, digital compasses and specific electronics. This xe2x80x9cstate of the artxe2x80x9d use of an M16 type weapon has given rise to the desire for mounting several pieces of apparatus at once onto the weapon.
As the number of different types of supplemental devices has proliferated, creating a suitable mounting platform for the devices to M16 types has been an on going pursuit of the government and manufacturers. The government has standardized the actual mounting surface between devices ad mounting adapter through Military Standard 1913 (MIL-STD-1913) which depicts and describes the xe2x80x9cPiccatiny Railxe2x80x9d configuration. This rail configuration has been merged into recent M16 designs such as the M16A4 flat-top rail on the upper receiver handle portion, allowing the handle to be removed and attachments to be placed. This rail position alone is not sufficient to satisfy the ever growing desire of users to further mount supplemental devices. For example with an optical scope or camera mounted on the integral rail on the upper receiver, the user may further desire to mount a flash light and laser pointer to the M4 weapon. All these devices however, cannot be mounted at the same time utilizing only the integral rail. Accordingly, various schemes have been devised to provide the M4 type weapon with additional mounting rails.
A number of the schemes for mounting supplemental devices involve using the hand guard system of the M4 in some way with a deleterious over all effect to the M4 firearm. The current M16 type rifle derivation, the M4 manufactured by Colt""s Manufacturing for example, has become the standard weapon of choice for many police and military groups because of its compact design, accuracy and feature level. One of its hailed features is the double heat shield hand guard system, which is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,663,875. Not only does it create superior barrel heat shielding in burst and full auto, it has a ergonomic hold of the rifle due to the natural grasp shape. The M4 hand guard has become an integral look as well as a standard hold of the M4 rifle. However, the present M4 style hand guard mounting system was never intended to carry supplemental devices, especially heavy electronics that require exact repeatable placement with forced centerline geometry to the barrel. The original intent of the design was merely an ingenious and fast way to affix the hand guard to the rifle and nothing else. The present construction including the rear cap urged by its extension spring into the taper of the plastic in the rear of the hand guard and its corresponding forward stationary metal stamped cup docking the front portion of the hand guard, cannot create an adequate foundation for supplemental device mounting. Present rail type devices using the existing hand guard mounting technique prove inadequate for repetitive mounting and unmounting of supplemental devices. Also, combination rail and hand guard devices of a xe2x80x9cfree floatingxe2x80x9d concept compound the geometry considerations with an unsupported beam creating a completely unsatisfactory situation.
One example of a rail adapter hand guard system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,826,363 which provides a replacement hand guard, replacing the original hand guard on M16 type rifles and carbines. The replacement hand guard has accessory adapter rails affixed directly to the hand guard, and the replacement hand guard is mounted on the weapon using the mounting configuration of the original hand guard which it replaces. The replacement hand guard has four fixed rail portions equally distributed around the circumference of the hand guard with one rail portion located at the top most section of the hand guard.
The current rail type devices or systems, such as exemplified by the device in U.S. Pat. No. 5,826,363, suffer from several deficiencies. First is the simple matter of choice, in that in order to use a forward rail system the user has to abandon the M4 hand guard and replace it with one of the replacement units. This adds extreme cost to the basic weapon price and permanently alters its configuration. The operator also loses the intended barrel heat shielding characteristics of the double heat shield design of the original hand guard. Generally, the replacement hand guard rail type systems are constructed from aluminum which conducts heat from the barrel and brings the hand guard to the operating temperature of the barrel rapidly, creating discomfort for the operator.
Manufactured from an aluminum extrusion the mounting portion of the replacement hand guard comes in direct contact with the barrel conducting or convecting heat directly to the users hand, creating an undesirable situation. Aluminum has very fast heat transfer properties, which only permit a short time of use before the aluminum hand guard approaches the operating temperature of the barrel. Because of aluminum""s heat properties, it is slow to dissipate the heat, rendering the use of the weapon in an inefficient manner. To compound this problem, the replacement rail type hand guards do not provide an ergonomic grip for the operator. When grasping the hand guard, the operator""s hand grips the corners and edges of the rails which are part of the hand guard.
Accuracy of the placement of the supplemental devices in relation to the centerline of the barrel is also an issue when employing the present rail type hand guards. As can realized, the accuracy of the placement of the supplemental devices is directly dependent on how accurately the mounting rail on the rail type hand guard is placed in relation to the barrel centerline. This in turn depends on the placement of the rail type hand guard on the firearm. However, the rail type hand guard systems, as noted before, merely employ the same mounting configuration as the original hand guard. The mounting configuration of the original hand guard on the M4 type firearms is intended only for mounting the hand guard on the M4. Hence, the placement accuracy of the hand guard mounting configuration is sufficient for mounting the hand guard itself to the firearm, but not for accurately locating supplemental devices on the firearm. For example, the hand guard on M4 type firearms has radial locating ridges which engage gas tube clearance slots of the barrel nut to rotationally position the hand guard of the firearm. Hence, at least the rotational position of the rails on a rail type hand guard is established by the position of the barrel nut gas tube clearance slots on the firearm. The rotational position of the gas tube clearance slots however can vary rotationally up to 3xc2x0 due to tolerance stack up. Thus, the rails of the hand guard type rail systems can be out of square to the true sight plane of the weapon by up to 3 full degrees either clockwise or counter clockwise by the simple random event of where the barrel nut finds home. This variance is detrimental to having the supplemental devices accurately aligned or true to the sight plane of a firearm as well as to repeatability of installation between firearms. The rail type hand guard systems which employ a xe2x80x9cfree floatingxe2x80x9d mounting configuration also suffer certain deficiencies. For instance, a basic problem with the free floating concept is that nothing supports the rail system, and the rail system regardless of how rigid acts as a tuning fork every time the weapon is fired. The free floating rail type hand guards have proven deficient when deployed with scope or camera type devices. In use with a bipod, they can bend on the weapon. Hence, the free floating rail type hand guard is not desired for mission critical equipment.
The present invention overcomes the problems of the present supplemental device mounting systems as will be described in greater detail below.
It is one object of the invention to integrate a rail mounting firearm type such as for example a M4 type firearm without replacing the hand guard. Also rapid assembly of a rail system onto any M4 type rifle with use of the new front and rear orbiting rail carriers and the existing hand guard.
A further object of the invention is to create a modular rail system so that a rail could have from one to eight rotational placements in 45 degree increments but also be used for any existing M16 or M4 hand guard length by simply using a longer rail with the pre mounted orbiting rail carriers on any derivation rifle or carbine.
Another object of the invention is that the rear orbiting rail carrier replaces the standard M4 hand guard cap but integrates all of the existing mounting features and does not disturb the present hand guard mounting scenario.
Yet another object of the invention is to enable M16 type and M4 type firearms to easily be retrofitted with a firearm adapter rail system using the present invention, using ordinary tools.
In accordance with the first embodiment of the present invention, a firearm rail adapter system for mounting accessories on a firearm is provided. The system comprises a first mount, a second mount, and an adapter rail. The first mount is adapted to be mounted to the firearm. The first mount has rail attachment sections thereon. The second mount is adapted to be mounted to the firearm and has other rail attachment sections thereon. The adapter rail is adapted to be removably mounted to at least one of the rail attachment sections of the first mount, and to at least one of the other rail attachment sections of the second mount. The rail attachment sections and the other rail attachment sections are disposed respectively on the first mount and second mount so that when the first mount and second mount are mounted to the firearm, the first mount and second mount provide a number of different selectable mounting stations for mounting the adapter rail to the firearm.
In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, a firearm rail adapter system for mounting accessories on a firearm is provided. The system comprises a first mount, a second mount, and an adapter rail. The first mount is adapted to be mounted to the firearm and has rail attachment sections thereon. The second mount is adapted to be mounted to the firearm and has other rail attachment sections thereon. The adapter rail is adapted to be removably mounted to at least one of the rail attachment sections of the first mount and to at least one of the other rail attachment sections of the second mount. The rail attachment sections and the other rail attachment sections are disposed respectively on the first mount and second mount so that the adapter rail can be mounted in a position on the firearm selected from a number of different selectable positions on the firearm. The selectable positions are different relative to the predetermined reference datum of the firearm.
In accordance with still another embodiment of the present invention, a firearm rail adapter system for mounting accessories on a firearm is provided. The system comprises a first mount, a second mount, and an adapter rail. The first mount is adapted to be mounted to the firearm. The first mount has rail attachment sections thereon. The second mount is adapted to be mounted to the firearm and has other rail attachment sections thereon. The adapter rail is adapted to be removably mounted to at least one of the rail attachment sections of the first mount, and to at least one of the other rail attachment sections of the second mount. The rail attachment sections and the other rail attachment sections are disposed respectively on the first mount and second mount to allow the adapter rail to be mounted on the firearm in a number of different selectable positions. The different selectable positions are different relative to a predetermined reference datum of the firearm.
In accordance with yet another embodiment of the present invention, a firearm rail adapter system for mounting accessories on a firearm is provided. The system comprises at least one adapter rail, a front mount, and a rear mount. The adapter rail is adapted for removably mounting firearm accessories thereon. At least one rail has front and rear rail attachment sections for attaching the rail to the firearm. The front mount is disposed proximal to a front end of a barrel of the firearm. The rear mount is disposed proximal to the rear end of the barrel. The front and rear mounts mount the at least one rail to the barrel of the firearm. The front mount is adapted to removably mate with the front rail attachment section, and the rear mount is adapted to removably mate with the rear rail attachment section. The rail is removably mountable in a number of different selectable positions on the front and rear mounts.
In accordance with still another embodiment of the present invention, a firearm is provided. The firearm comprises a receiver, a barrel connected to the receiver, a hand guard connected to the barrel, and an adapter rail mounting system. The adapter rail mounting system is adapted for mounting accessories to the firearm. The system comprises mounts with a number of different adapter rail attachment sections for attaching an adapter rail to the firearm. The different attachment sections allow the adapter rail to be mounted to the firearm in a number of different positions around the barrel of the firearm.
In accordance with yet another embodiment of the present invention, a kit is provided. The kit comprises an adapter rail, a first mount element, and a second mount element. The adapter rail is adapted for mounting accessories to a firearm. The first mount element is adapted for connecting the adapter rail to the firearm. The second mount element is adapted for connecting the adapter rail to the firearm.